HKIA and Cebu Pacific Airlines

[Dave Hounddriver]

On 1/1/2018 at 8:11 PM, jrlee183 said:

Dave - Jardine Airport services Ltd are the ground agents for Cebu Pacific at HKIA and they are also the ground agents for a number of full service carriers (E.g. ANA/Air Canada).  They will almost certainly have an airside transfer desk after you get of your flight from Vancouver. They could probably print out a boarding pass if you show them the document cebu pacific give you after doing online check in.

I thought this may be my best option so I wrote the passenger services manager for Jardine Airport services and this is the reply I got:

Quote

 

Dear Mr Hounddriver,

Please kindly note that Cebu Pacific didn’t have transfer desk and facility inside the airside area, therefore you need to check-in at normal counter for collecting your boarding pass.

Have a nice day.

Best regards,
MK Lee

 

Looks like I must exit through immigration and re-enter but I have time so it should not be a problem.  Too bad they have to make it complicated.

[Gary D]

15 minutes ago, Dave Hounddriver said:

I thought this may be my best option so I wrote the passenger services manager for Jardine Airport services and this is the reply I got:

Looks like I must exit through immigration and re-enter but I have time so it should not be a problem.  Too bad they have to make it complicated.

It's because you are using two different airlines so you are not transiting in the normal way. You are visiting HK then taking a further flight to Manila, they are unconnected but just happen to be only a few hours apart. We arrive in HK this coming March  with Cathey Pacific and change plane so we are transiting.

[Dave Hounddriver]

1 minute ago, Gary D said:

It's because you are using two different airlines so you are not transiting in the normal way

Actually, it is simply because Cebu Pacific does not have a transfer desk in the secure area.

It is quite simple to go the other way, as in arrive on a Cebu Pacific flight and transit in the normal way to any airline with a desk in the secure area.  It used to be possible to transfer to Cebu Pacific within the secure area but they no longer have a transfer desk.  (Must have cost them money  ).  At the time I booked the flight I could have booked another airline that did have a transfer desk (for the convenience of it) but each of those other airlines were charging at least US$ 50 more for the same flight so for $50 I will exit through customs and then come back in.

[Gary D]

5 minutes ago, Dave Hounddriver said:

Actually, it is simply because Cebu Pacific does not have a transfer desk in the secure area.

It is quite simple to go the other way, as in arrive on a Cebu Pacific flight and transit in the normal way to any airline with a desk in the secure area.  It used to be possible to transfer to Cebu Pacific within the secure area but they no longer have a transfer desk.  (Must have cost them money  ).  At the time I booked the flight I could have booked another airline that did have a transfer desk (for the convenience of it) but each of those other airlines were charging at least US$ 50 more for the same flight so for $50 I will exit through customs and then come back in.

We did Air France / Cebu Pacific about 10 years ago and had to collect our luggage and go tbrough immigration so I assume it's alway been that way.

[Jollygoodfellow]

21 minutes ago, Dave Hounddriver said:

Actually, it is simply because Cebu Pacific does not have a transfer desk in the secure area.

Carry your own gun and you will be in a secure area. Problem solved 

[Lou49]

I travel on Jan.9, Vancouver to HK on Cathay, then transfer in HK to Dragon Air to Cebu. My travel agent told me that Cathay and Dragon are in the same terminal and that I would be ticketed straight thru to Cebu from Vancouver so it should be  no problem. I would assume that Cebu Pacific would be in the same terminal also? 

Edited January 7, 2018 by Lou49

[Dave Hounddriver]

1 hour ago, Gary D said:

We did Air France / Cebu Pacific about 10 years ago and had to collect our luggage and go tbrough immigration

10 years ago today, (Jan 8, 2007), Cebu Pacific had a transfer desk in HKIA.  I had occasion to be very glad they did.

In your case you did the right thing as your luggage was ticketed to Hong Kong and you had time to go claim it.  In my case, (the flight 10 years ago), my flight to Hong Kong was late and I did not have time to do as you did. Thus I went to the Cebu Pacific airside transfer desk and the gentleman there was extremely accommodating.  He sent someone to get my bag for me (at the baggage claim outside the immigration area) and re-tagged it to Cebu, then gave me my boarding pass and showed me to my gate. I only had 45 minutes from the arrival of my late flight to the scheduled departure of the CP flight and I made the connection. That level of customer service made me loyal to Cebu Pacific but it is lacking today.  And that's a shame.

I guess I got lucky